Constructed between 1165 and 1173 by Henry II, this castle has performed its role of a defense against invasion even in the 20th century. During WW2 there was a big gun aimed out over the English Channel in case of Nazi assault by sea. Fortunately for us, it is available to spend a couple of hours touring and absorbing history.

In April 2006 a friend and I were given a private tour of radio broadcast facilities on Orford Ness, a slender peninsula that is cut off from the rest of Great Britain at high tides. The site was used by by Anglo/American forces from WW2 until the 1980s, and was the location of the once-secret Project Cobra Mist over-the-horizon radar undertaking in the 1960s and 1970s. There are a lot of interesting artifacts from Cold War operations, but it is slowly reverting back to its natural wetland state, and is a protected wildlife sanctuary. We were shuttled over and back on a WW2 landing craft from which this photo was was taken on the return trip. The town of Orford is also the location of Orford Castle, built in the year 1100, and open for tourists daily.

The slightly illustrative look of this posting comes from playing around with a Photoshop color lookup adjustment layer set to "blacklight poster" and set to darken blend mode, with transparency adjusted to 33%.